ArcGIS Pro "Project not found" error, missing .aprx and toolbox.

[DM_GISServices]

Hello all,

I had a project I was working on in ArcGIS Pro earlier today in which I had a toolbox with a few models, a script, and FME tools. A few minutes after having closed out Pro, I re-opened it and tried to open the project from the "Recent Projects" link. I then got a "Project not found" error with the message (attachment included), "Sorry, we couldn't find your project. Do you want to remove the project shortcut from your list of recent projects?" Instead of removing it I navigated to the project in Windows Explorer and found the .aprx to be missing along with the toolbox in which I had been doing work. I had searched about this problem a year or two ago (a coworker experienced this problem) and was able to find that a couple people had run into this before, but searching now seems to bring no results. I wanted to ask you all - have you had this problem of ArcGIS Pro disappearing projects before and were you able to recover your projects without restoring previous versions of the project's parent folder? I have spent a long time working on this project and would like to avoid having to start even from a recovery point. 

-Max

EDIT: Please post here if you have had this problem too! There does not seem to be a solution at this point, but the more people that can share their experiences having this problem the more likely we are to be able to find out where this problem is stemming. 

[DanPatterson_Retired]

were you working with a locally save project? (eg. on your C: drive?)

Perhaps OneDrive or its similar ilk?

Network?

Have you done a Windows File explorer for the name on everything connected to your computer?

[DM_GISServices]

Hello Dan,

Thank you for getting back so quickly! I was working with a project saved on a shared network drive using its UNC path. I am not sure I follow your last question - I do have mapped network drives in Windows Explorer but sometimes I just type the direct path - does that answer it?

-Max

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Basically, have you used File Explorer (window file managment) to search for the aprx.  If it exists the aprx should be able to be located.  If it was saved, it had to be saved somewhere.  As for network locations, I presume that those can still be accessed.  I know you restarted Pro, but maybe a swift reboot might be in order as well

[DM_GISServices]

Oh, yes I did us FE to search for it, without success. To add, I created the project last week and had saved/closed/opened it several times before today so it should have saved to the same location. Unfortunately I will have to try restarting later today as I am using Pro on my GIS Server.

-Max

[DanPatterson_Retired]

good luck.  when you have any news, get back to the thread

[DM_GISServices]

In the end, I was able to the project files from a backup of the shared network drive. I wish I could have found out whatever caused this in order to prevent it in the future, but I really need to move on with the project!

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Glad to hear the words .... from a backup .... I was worried that all was lost

Take care

[PeterStokely]

I have lost three entire Project Folders within the last two weeks along with the .aprx and all the data in the .gdb's. Hours of work gone.  Megabytes of data lost.  The Project folders simply disappeared, they are not in the Recycle bin, nowhere.  Frustrating, unexplained and scary.  This is making the ArcGIS Pro software to unreliable for work. 

[George_Thompson]

Where the project files local or on a network drive?

I would contact technical support about this.